DISCIPLINE

Nine Inch Nails

Sometimes, the old ways are the best. Years and years ago, bands would release songs as and when they felt like it. I'll give you an example if you like. New Order released Blue Monday and it went on to become the biggest selling 12" single in history. A few months later the album (Power, Corruption and Lies) came out and Blue Monday wasn't on it. Now that's something that wouldn't happen today - if a major record label somehow manages to get a massive hit, you can bet your life they'd either make sure it appeared on the new album, or if the album was already out, they'd re-issue it with the song tacked onto the end. Times are changing however, and right now bands like Nine Inch Nails and Radiohead are showing what can happen if you've got a big enough fanbase to get away with it. Not only is this new single completely free, it's so new that they've released it almost as soon as it was completed. If that's not enough, if you think the song doesn't sound good enough as it is, all the parts for it are available online so you can even remix the damn thing yourself. With all that in mind, it almost doesn't matter whether I think the song's good or not, because if you don't like it you've got the tools to turn it into something you like. As it happens, I do like this. It's not quite vintage Nine Inch Nails, but even a sub-standard Nine Inch Nails song is better than the vast majority of the songs you hear on the radio, and this'll do nicely. After his foray into the world of instrumental weirdness, Trent Reznor's gone back to basics here, which basically means he sings on this one - there's a nice touch at the start where he begins to sing, stops and then starts again properly. It roars along at a decent pace, and for some reason the fade-out leads me to wonder whether there's a longer version of this that's going to appear on a forthcoming album. Thing is, with this band all bets are off - you never know what they're going to do until they've already released it. It's nice to see that there are still some bands about who can still genuinely surprise everybody, including their own fans. That's no mean feat.

OUTTA MY HEAD (AY YA YA)

Ashlee Simpson

It's got a stupid title and I can't imagine that Timbaland will want to put this song too high up on his CV, not when he's got the likes of Justin Timberlake and Nelly Furtado to shout about. It also sounds like a song that's been rediscovered after hiding in someone's record collection since 1982. But. It's a very big "but" too, deserving of its own sentence. I actually quite like this. I feel as though I shouldn't, but there you go, I do. It's daft, it's ridiculous, but it doesn't quite overstep the proper song / childish rubbish mark and that's the key. It's not even like this is a first either, when she released Boyfriend I liked that one too. I hope that doesn't mean I'm mellowing out, tell you what, I'll be back in a while, I'm off to listen to Garbage's first album. If I come back to you complaining about the racket, then that'll mean I'm mellowing out.

GOOD MORNING

Sparks

I'm back, and it's business as usual, which is a relief. Kate Nash wishes she could do a song like this. The Hoosiers wish they could do a song like this. Jolly piano-led pop, but with brilliant lyrics. Basically the singer wakes up one morning next to somebody with looks to die for, but can't for the life of him remember what happened the previous evening. Doesn't matter though, he comes to the conclusion that he must've had an absolutely fantastic night so he says a little prayer of thanks to God for thinking of him. A decent tune, awesome lyrics, all in all the complete package, really.